It really doesn't have as much of a time investment as you'd think; because there's no gear treadmill (and no level cap increase with the expansion) you could have started playing 3 years ago at launch, gotten full Exotic-tier weapons and stopped playing this entire time. You'd be able to log in and pick up right where you left off, the only thing you'd have missed was the huge amount of content they've added.

You can pick it up and play it when you have free time and never worry that you're falling behind everyone else or missing out on whatever's new. Heck, you can even replay the Living Story (they add a bunch new content in episode-format every two weeks during each "Season") on your own time now, for free if you remember to log in when each episode is live.

Banned

Member

If you're new or returning make sure to check out GAF guild. Been playing MMOs for nearly 20 years and this is easily the best group of people I've ever had the fortune of playing thousands of hours with.

Now I just need to worry about getting ready for Trick or Treat and the jungle.

Member

I think I'm ready for HoT. Bought up mats I'll need and then some, have all crafting professions maxed, season 2 achievements done, max hero points on the characters I want to elite spec right away, tomes + equipment for Revenant, stuff queued up in my personal guild, and more. I keep telling myself I have everything lined up, but I have this nagging feeling there's something I've overlooked something.

Member

Member

Thanks for the compliments everyone, I was really just trying hard to find new and creative ways to do this game and its amazing community justice.

We've been playing together as a guild since launch 3 years ago, with no major changes in leadership, splintering or dying out (most GAF-based guilds don't last very long). I put the effort into the OT because so many awesome people put in the time to answer questions, run dungeons, teach new players and generally make our community kick ass. I've been playing MMOs for what feels like ages now and I've never been part of a group like GAFGuild.

If you're thinking of coming back, picking up the free core game to try it out, or you've already sprung for the expansion; post your username (name.####) and join up before our last 100 slots fill up!

(Don't worry though, we have a second guild once the first fills up, at launch we had 750 people and guilds are capped at 500).

I've never tried Discord, but Teamspeak is what the Stormbluff Isle community uses for World vs.World / World Boss purposes; we didn't make that decision, but we support the server's war effort and encourage people to communicate there. Our mumble server is paid up for another two years (thanks to donations from members, did I mentioned this community kicks ass?) but when that gets close to running out I'll certainly give it a look.

Member

I never made it to max level in the base game and did not complete the person story, I think I ended up in the low 30s. Will I be able to take that character into the new stuff and play it sequentially and have the levels even out? Or will it be too hard or easy?

Member

I never made it to max level in the base game and did not complete the person story, I think I ended up in the low 30s. Will I be able to take that character into the new stuff and play it sequentially and have the levels even out? Or will it be too hard or easy?

The new stuff is level 80 content (the xpac continues the story after Season 2 of Living World), so you'd want to finish your Personal Story first, then do Season 2 of Living World, then do the xpac content, ideally.

Or rush to 80 and go to the new zones. But I think it's worth doing the content in order.

Member

The new stuff is level 80 content (the xpac continues the story after Season 2 of Living World), so you'd want to finish your Personal Story first, then do Season 2 of Living World, then do the xpac content, ideally.

Or rush to 80 and go to the new zones. But I think it's worth doing the content in order.

Banned

The new stuff is level 80 content (the xpac continues the story after Season 2 of Living World), so you'd want to finish your Personal Story first, then do Season 2 of Living World, then do the xpac content, ideally.

Or rush to 80 and go to the new zones. But I think it's worth doing the content in order.

Member

On the plus side. You can level pretty fast these days. Tomes of Knowledge are given out on the login bonus and are handed out like candy in pvp. The Halloween Labyrinth has been one of the highest rates of xp gain too. Although with HoT launching too, might be less people this year. None of the story stuff is required of course. Hit 80. Jump into HoT if you like.

Member

Yep, you'll be able to read the guild chat for all 5 guilds if you're so inclined. We already have all of the officers in the Overflow guild (GAFO) and we're going to throw invites to a bunch of our active players so even if people have to wait in the backup guild they can still ask questions and such.

I never made it to max level in the base game and did not complete the person story, I think I ended up in the low 30s. Will I be able to take that character into the new stuff and play it sequentially and have the levels even out? Or will it be too hard or easy?

To add to what Miktar mentioned, you'd need to reach level 80 before you could explore the new parts of the world added in the expansion. However, they're adding a bunch of new stuff to the core game like Map Bonus rewards (which give you valuable crafting materials just for doing events), changes to Fractals, etc. Because there's no level cap increase or new gear tier in the expansion, you don't have to worry about playing catch-up to everyone else if / when you decide to pick it up. Level 80 is pretty much the bar for entry for the new stuff.

I'd try contacting support. They're usually lightning quick, though the expansion might slow them down a bit. They're pretty tight with security, so while it may be an annoyance to recover your account it also stops people from getting their accounts compromised.

Member

Bought the expansion yesterday. Btw, I don't know if it's mentioned in the OP or not (and it's probably too late to do anything about it now considering the time), but:

"If you registered your core Guild Wars 2 game before 23 January, 2015 and register a pre-purchase serial code for Heart of Thorns any time before the expansion is released, youll receive a free character slot! Once you apply a pre-purchase serial code, youll be eligible for the slot regardless of where you bought the core game."

Member

To add to what Miktar mentioned, you'd need to reach level 80 before you could explore the new parts of the world added in the expansion. However, they're adding a bunch of new stuff to the core game like Map Bonus rewards (which give you valuable crafting materials just for doing events), changes to Fractals, etc. Because there's no level cap increase or new gear tier in the expansion, you don't have to worry about playing catch-up to everyone else if / when you decide to pick it up. Level 80 is pretty much the bar for entry for the new stuff.

I get it, but I really loved how on GW2 launch those early zones were filled with players. I played it some then but then put it down for awhile and when I came back the zones I were in were pretty barren of players. I expect the same will likely happen with the new zones, when this expansion releases there will be a huge surge of players running through it for the first time but later on if I ever get my character to that level they'll probably just be populated by people running specific things and not just progressing through them.

A little, but they've basically decided that whenever a new expansion releases, the core game + previous expansions will become free, making $50 the 'buy in' for the entire game from here on out. You can read more about it here; https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/

Good news: last August they completely overhauled the game's early levels, implemented level-up rewards, a content guide that always points you towards a goal and a bunch of new tutorials, making it much easier to get into the game (or back into it, as the case were).

I get it, but I really loved how on GW2 launch those early zones were filled with players. I played it some then but then put it down for awhile and when I came back the zones I were in were pretty barren of players. I expect the same will likely happen with the new zones, when this expansion releases there will be a huge surge of players running through it for the first time but later on if I ever get my character to that level they'll probably just be populated by people running specific things and not just progressing through them.

No worries; not only are there tons of new players due to the core gaming being free AND a lot of players leveling the new Revenant profession, but back in April of 2014 they added a new Megaserver system that puts as many people into each zone as possible across servers. There hasn't been anything even approaching empty zones for more than a year now. I've leveled quite a few alts since then and I can't remember the last time I went more than a few minutes without bumping into players, even in the mid-level zones where the population tends to traditionally thin out.

Member

Member

I get it, but I really loved how on GW2 launch those early zones were filled with players. I played it some then but then put it down for awhile and when I came back the zones I were in were pretty barren of players. I expect the same will likely happen with the new zones, when this expansion releases there will be a huge surge of players running through it for the first time but later on if I ever get my character to that level they'll probably just be populated by people running specific things and not just progressing through them.

Nowadays with megaservers, no zone is ever empty, or lacking players. The game keeps spooling up new instances and closing low-population ones, so players are always grouped together. If the map suddenly asks you if you want to swap to a higher population one (so it can close the one you're in), you get a buff to XP for saying yes, and get placed in a map with more people. And since the game's gone F2P, there's a LOT more people playing in all areas.